european women vs. north american women

[Pegasus]

My experience is that Europe is still a very patriarchal society and that is many many centuries old an people clearly understand their roles.

 

This was exactly my experience and I dated few europeean women and one american. My feeling was that american one was somehow trying to "prove" all the time that she's equal to men and that irritated me a lot because there was no real need for that. I mean, if you KNOW you're equal, there's no need to show it in everyone's face. (I can't forget lines like - "I don't need a man to define me" etc etc..)

 

Also, most europeean women I know are family oriented and consider having their own family as a primary goal in life what I also respect very much. On another hand - this american one I mentioned, was very career driven from the outside but I somehow feel that main driver was again to "prove equality".

 

I'm not saying that what I wrote should be taken as law but as my personal expirience with this subject.

[CarnelianButterfly]

I think in Europe they understand what true equality is considering that over there it's not essentially the free-for-all that is the concept of American competition against others for everything from love to your yearly salary.

 

That's funny to hear considering some of my European friends said that there is such rampant racism in most of the EU. My friend spent a good amount of time doing research with a woman from Romania, the Romanian lady was so discriminated against it was ridiculous. A brilliant mind crushed by stupid customs.

[Imprecision]

As a Chinese Canadian, I like American women a lot. They're down-home, straightforward, compassionate, even if a little naive.

 

Canadian women are like American women, but Canadian women are generally more polite.

 

Whenever I go back to China, I'm always excited to meet American and Canadian women. They're very friendly, and they fit in well. They leave a good impression with their host.

 

Of course, as a Canadian, as someone who grew up in Vancouver and loves Vancouver very much, I have stronger cultural affinity with North American women than with European women. thereforeee, I might be biased.

 

That being said, European women have good qualities also. We must be fair and balanced. All women have good qualities. It's up to us to discover them.

[Rammspieler]

That's funny to hear considering some of my European friends said that there is such rampant racism in most of the EU. My friend spent a good amount of time doing research with a woman from Romania, the Romanian lady was so discriminated against it was ridiculous. A brilliant mind crushed by stupid customs.

 

[sARCASM]Yes because the U.S. has done away with racism back in the Civil War.[/sARCASM]

[CarnelianButterfly]

[sARCASM]Yes because the U.S. has done away with racism back in the Civil War.[/sARCASM]

 

We at least acknowledge it as a problem.

[evice]

Dear CarnelianButterfly,

 

Does acknowledging the problem makes less of a problem, no problem or a good thing. Racism, discrimination etc is wrong but will always exist because it's part of human nature. And you can't change human nature. That's my opinion.

[CarnelianButterfly]

Dear CarnelianButterfly,

 

Does acknowledging the problem makes less of a problem, no problem or a good thing. Racism, discrimination etc is wrong but will always exist because it's part of human nature. And you can't change human nature.

 

How do you know its inherited and not learned? Environment is responsible for a huge portion of of our culture. Don't believe me? Pick up a National Geographic and look at the variety learned patterns that abound accross the globe.

 

You could argue that it was human nature for cannibals to eat people, if it was their nature it couldn't be changed. They certainly think that its normal to them, they enjoy and cherish the practice. But a majority of people believe cannibalism is a horrible taboo. So what is true human nature?

[yellow_sweater]

...is that, in general, the average American (U.S.) speaks more loudly (in terms of decibel output) than the average non-American. This was first mentioned to me during training as an ESL tutor, and I have noticed it via my own experiences working with students from different cultures. I can't say that is a North American v. European thing, as there are some Italians and Norwegians (just for example) that speak loudly and Americans that speak softly. But looking more globally at Americans v. non-Americans (including people from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania), I think it's a decent generalization.

 

Really, though, there are so many regional variations within America, and sheesh, Europe is a CONTINENT with many countries, and each country has many regions, it's so difficult (impossible?) to make such wide-sweeping generalizations. Especially with the rise of global culture and communications, when you look so broadly, differences tend to smooth out and be less distinct.

 

And I'm not going to waste my time on the sexism in some of the posts in this thread... Ugh.

 

YS